Tuesday, May 20, 2008

And Yet I am Surprised

I have to leave this job. I must. I've reached a point I didn't think possible and having seen it, I know this can't go on.

Another high-prio Class 1 ticket came in which wasn't really Class-1 because the system wasn't down.

Hi,

Our server is very close to running out of hard drive space due to the fact that our file storage is located on this server. We do not have any RAID slots available to add new hard drive space so we are looking to move the file storage to a new server. I want to make sure that I am doing this correctly with you all.

Do these steps sounds correct, or is there something I can follow for this?

[complicated 9-step process redacted]

Are there any other steps necessary for this?

-Doug

So I wrote back a simple answer within an hour:

Doug,

The Admin Docs explains how to move the file storage system to a new physical location in Chapter 3, "Administering the File Storage System" under the heading "Moving the the File Storage System".

However, you can simply copy the entire parent directory and structure over from the old system to the new. There's nothing else to do other than provide the new path in place of the old in the two config files and File Storage Administration records. This easier method requires a server restart.

Regards,

REC

And that should've been the end of it. I got an update two days later and I was gobsmacked. I read it and sat there with my mouth wide open in shock.

Thank you. This worked perfectly. Have a great weekend.

Doug

I was in shock because a customer did what I told him to do and then he actually thanked me! Compare and contrast this with Mook-Man, to whom I'd sent exactly the same response seven weeks earlier (I'd cut and pasted the answer I sent to Doug from Mook-Man's ticket).

It would take me too long to detail the plethora of activities but in Mook-Man's case there were 17 attempts to call me, two escalation demands, 14 follow-up questions (each one ignoring everything previously stated), 14 follow-up answers, 11 demands for Web conferencing (always around midnight my time, natch), and because this still wasn't enough, that attention whore brought in his Technical Account Representative whom he demanded work on-site. The TAR of course didn't; he used teleconferencing. The actual "problem", of course, being that Mook-Man never even looked at what I'd written much less actually try and follow the simple instructions.

This I'm used to. I've become as inured to such fuckwits as Rob the Bouncer has to Guidos. You see a problem, you sigh, you do your best to avoid escalation, you sort out any resulting mess, you collect your money and go home. So far, so good. But when I'm literally shocked because someone did the right thing and then thanked me for helping him, and then went so far as to wish me a nice weekend, there's a problem which needs to be dealt with.

In compliance with $MegaCorp's general policies as well as my desire to
continue living under a roof and not the sky or a bus shelter, I add this:

DISCLAIMER:The views expressed on this blog are my own and
do not necessarily reflect the views of $MegaCorp, even if every
single one of my cow-orkers who has discovered this blog agrees with me
and would also like to see the implementation of Root Cause: 17-Fuckwit.